Fans will buy this Sale
New Red Sox ace all about winning
FORT MYERS — Chris Sale could not have been nicer as he sat before the cameras yesterday for his first round of “Meet the Press” as a member of the Red Sox.
He ladled out the requisite niceties about being part of such a great organization, that he’s always admired this or that member of the Red Sox, that pitching at Fenway Park is a real treat, etc., but he went way, way, way beyond that.
He was anecdotal. He was interesting. He was . . . funny.
Case in point: If you’ve ever seen Sale pitch, you know that he’s a 6-foot-6, 180-pound blade of grass. He’s a tall drink of water. He’s as thin as a rail. He’s . . .
“(Eduardo) Rodriguez just asked me, how was the food?” Sale said. “I was like, I’m not skinny because I don’t eat. I come from a long line of skinny people. My dad, when he got married, he was under a size30 waist. My grandfather’s nickname was ‘Streamlined.’ He was a swimmer. Tall, skinny guys for days.
“My dad I think is 6-3, my grandfather was 6-4, both my grandfathers are 6-4, 6-5, all my uncles. I think my shortest uncle is like 6-2. We’ve got tall, skinny guys all over the place.”
OK, so you’ll get better material if you go to the Wang tonight and hang out with Louis C.K. But such was Sale’s comfort level yesterday, such was his willingness to laugh a little and tell us stories about his family (really, a grandfather named Streamlined?) that the entire scene was in stark contrast to what we heard and read about this guy from his last season with the Chicago White Sox.
Specifically, there was an incident in which Sale didn’t much like it when the White Sox broke out their famously hideous 1976 throwback uniforms — Oh, the collars! Oh, the untucked shirts! Oh, the humanity! — for a game against the Detroit Tigers. Sale’s response? He attacked a bunch of the uniforms with a pair of scissors, an act of sartorial civic disobedience that earned him a fine and fivegame suspension.
There have been other incidents, such as when he lashed out at White Sox president Kenny Williams in the aftermath of teammate Adam LaRoche’s sudden retirement. And, OK, there was that time Sale tried to barge into the Kansas City Royals clubhouse to take on the whole team.
So I asked Sale, as politely as I could, “You certainly come across as a very pleasant guy sitting here now, but the impression to an outsider was that you were incredibly intense given the anecdotal stuff from last year. So how would you describe you?”
HIs first reaction was to suggest that we talk to his teammates about what kind of guy he is. But then he said this: “I’m a completely different person when I’m here and when I’m in between the painted lines. I can say that for sure.
“There’s definitely a switch that goes on. The things that you see, on the field, I don’t do in my everyday life.
“I’m just competitive. I’m very, very, competitive, no matter what it is. If I’m playing golf, or pitching or running or whatever it is, I’m just a very, very competitive person, and sometimes that gets the best of me, and I know that. And that’s why I think this year my focus level is going to be raised a little bit.”
I asked him if the uniform incident was a “between the lines” event, knowing, of course, that he didn’t actually do his slicing and dicing on the field.
“It wasn’t exactly between the white lines, but yeah, it all goes into the passion I have for playing the game and . . . things are going to happen,” he said. “Nobody’s perfect, and you’re going to make mistakes. And all I really want to say on that is you live and you learn. I have two sons now, a 6-year-old and a 2-monthold, and I tell them, ‘You’re gonna make mistakes, but if you learn from your mistakes, that’s the key.’ Everybody here has made a mistake. If you learn from it, you become a better person. If you keep making the same mistakes, you’re kind of spinning your tires.”
He was asked how he’d react if he faces a similar situation this season with the Red Sox.
“I don’t think they have throwbacks here,” he said, laughing.
That’s not entirely true. I did some checking yesterday and learned that the Red Sox will play at least one road game this season in which throwback uniforms are used (it hasn’t been announced yet). So yeah, it’s entirely possible if Sale is scheduled to pitch on a certain night in a certain city, he’ll find some funky, old-timey Red Sox road uni hanging in his stall.
Should that happen, the betting here is that he’ll roll with it. As he said yesterday, “It was something I learned from. I’ll leave it at that . . . moving forward, I think hopefully it’s made me a better person.”
To sum up: Chris Sale ripped up throwback uniforms, complained about the front office and challenged the entire opposing team to a fight.
This guy should not be playing for the Red Sox.
This guy should be playing for the Bruins.
Boston fans are going to love this guy. In a town obsessed with winning, that’s all he cares about.